34th Sunday of the year
Jesus, the king of our hearts
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This is one of the feasts that I find difficult to understand. So I did some reading about the history of this feast, I was utterly shocked to note that this feast was introduced only in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. Interestingly, as the Pope points out in an encyclical (letter of the pope) that accompanied the event, the introduction of the feast was a warning against the totalitarian governments of the 20th century. It was a statement against the situation of Europe between the two World Wars.
In this light, I got a new impetus to prepare this sermon. As we know, though ‘kings and queens’ are mostly becoming titles of the past, or becoming […]
Sunday Sermons
Sunday Sermons and Homilies
Sermon for 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Homily
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
The Day of the Lord (Lk 21:5-19)
I was rushing in the streets of London to catch a bus to college. Two young men accosted me in a rather friendly manner. I was almost near the bus stop, so I stopped by to listen to them. They showed me a picture of a beautiful garden – a classical scene from the Garden of Eden! “Would you like the world to be like this?” They asked. I immediately guessed that they were members of a sect or something. I came up with my answer quite spontaneously and quickly, “It is already like this; after all, the world is good.” They were somewhat surprised by my unexpected answer. They didn’t know how to proceed on with the conversation. They didn’t want to give up […]
All Souls Day
Theme: “The Souls of the Just are in the Hands of God”
Today we remember with affection and prayer those who have gone before us. It is a day when grief and faith meet, when silence and hope hold hands. The Scripture readings (with options) remind us that death is not the end, but a passage. The first reading from the Book of Wisdom says: “The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them.”
This conviction did not come easily in Israel’s history. Earlier generations thought that the dead simply went down to Sheol, a shadowy place of silence – in Greek, was referred as Hades. But in the later books, especially Wisdom and Maccabees, there was a breakthrough of faith. […]
Sermon for 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Homily
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
(Lk 18:1-8)
‘… a parable about the need to pray continually…’ (Lk 18:1)
Emergency numbers and frequently dialled numbers
Wherever in the world you are, today, you can have access to emergency services just by ‘dialling’ a few numbers on your telephone. Do you know the emergency number(s) in your own country? In the UK, it is 999; in the European Union it is 112, and in some countries it is 911. In some other countries there are separate numbers to call the police, fire services, or medical assistance. I recently read in the internet that the first emergency number system to be deployed, anywhere in the world, was in London. It was on 30 June 1937 that ‘999’ was first dialled and a special red light […]
Sermon for 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Homily
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
He threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him (Lk 17:11-19)
During the Ordinary Time of the year, for Sunday liturgy we normally listen to a particular Gospel. This year we are listening to the Gospel of Luke. The first reading is selected from the Old Testament in such a way as to correspond to the gospel text, while the 2nd reading from the Epistles follows its own sequence. Today, the first reading and the gospel text have extraordinary similarities. Both are stories about lepers being healed; in both stories there are expressions of gratitude; and both are about outsiders!
Let us begin by looking at some of the interesting details in the gospel text of today so as to appreciate the context of the story, and then we can reflect a […]